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Jack Ridl
November 22, 2002
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Jack
Ridl, a professor of English at Hope College, is the author
of six collections of poetry, including: The Same Ghost,
Between, After School, Poems from the Same Ghost and Between, and Against
Elegies. His most recent chapbook, Outside the Center
Ring,
explores life with the circus, and is based on his experiences
as a child behind the scenes. Along with his poetry, Ridl has
collaborated with Peter Schakel, also an English professor
at Hope College, to author Approaching Literature in the
21st Century: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, as well as Approaching
Poetry: Perspectives and Responses. Ridl and Schakel also co-edited
250 Poems, A Portable Anthology.
Jack Ridl's collection of poetry, Against Elegies, was
selected by Sharon Dolin and Billy Collins for the 2001
Chapbook Award
from The Center for Book Arts in New York City. His poem "The
Dry Wallers Listen to Sinatra While They Work" was chosen
by David St. John for the 2002 Say-the-Word Poetry Award
from The Ellipse Art Center in Arlington, Virginia. He has
been widely anthologized; and his poems have been published
in such literary magazines as LIT, The Georgia Review,
FIELD, Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast,
The Denver
Quarterly, Chelsea, Free Lunch, The Journal, Passages North,
and Poetry East. In 1996, The Carnegie Foundation named him
Michigan Professor of the Year.
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Ridl grew up in the
worlds of big time sports and the circus; his father coaching
basketball at Westminster College and the University of Pittsburgh.
Ridl was a point guard and a shortstop. He also spent a lot of
his time with his cousin who was a circus man. Jack's poems often
reflect these influences, as does his teaching.
Ridl lives along Lake Michigan with his wife, Julie. He has
been a member of the Hope faculty since 1971, and is also the
founder of Hope College's The Visiting Writers Series, which,
since 1985, has brought more than 150 writers to campus.
"Against Elegies arises from a sense of curiosity about
life in both its plain and puzzling aspects. These poems feel
their way forward and are attentive enough to the reader to
make us feel included--happy accomplices to his search." And
Naomi Shihab Nye has written, "Jack Ridl gracefully renders
all realms of experience in a voice that is brave, compelling,
and true; anyone who still has a glimmer of thought that poetry
is two steps removed from life would do well to read his poems." -Billy
Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-2003
For more information on Jack Ridl, please visit this website:
http://www.hope.edu/academic/english/ridl/
To view Special Collections' holdings of Ridl's work, please
click here.
To hear Ridl read from his own work, please visit the Vincent
Voice Library, here.
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| Page Editor: BreezySilver |
Last Updated:
March 2, 2007
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